Keep cats on your own property
The dilemma created by the feral cat colonies at the Washington County Fairgrounds is a depressingly familiar scenario being repeated nationwide. The cause is a combination of misplaced altruism, and a refusal of some folks to be confused by the facts. The result is a situation where public health and private property rights are totally ignored due to intimidation by a vocal but under-informed minority.
As now demonstrated at the Washington County Fairgrounds, concentrations of cats encourage abandonment and attract a surplus of disease-carrying wildlife. It is repeatedly shown that the feeding stations and managed colonies rarely reduce cat populations and often backfire. Meanwhile, the cats continue to kill native wildlife, suffer untreated infection and trauma, and spread disease to humans with their feces.
Domestic cats are listed by CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species) as one of the “100 worst invasive species in the world.” They arrived in this country with European settlers and are no more deserving of protection and free access to other people’s property than are ferrets or pot-bellied pigs.
According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, free-roaming abandoned and feral cats suffer premature mortality and pose a threat to public health with a variety of viral and parasitic diseases. The AVMA strongly supports reducing and controlling the number of free-roaming abandoned and feral cats through humane capture by local health departments, humane societies and animal control agencies.
Pennsylvania has a notoriously high rabies rate. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) now reports that people requiring PEP (post-exposure prophylactic) rabies shots are three times likelier to need them from exposure to cats than to dogs. Yet, illogically, Pennsylvania seems to lack laws that place the same restrictions on cats as on dogs.
Invest now to make public health your county’s priority. Insist that managed cat colonies be confined to feeder’s own property. Impose stiff fines for abandonment or for feeding outside of one’s own property, or for allowing one’s cats to roam and defecate on the property of others. Your wildlife and your citizens will be safer and your public spaces more attractive for everyone. Do not allow the opinions of a vocal minority to alter the facts about the quality of life and the future health of folks in Washington County.
Page S. Williams
Houston, Tex.